Nanofuture: What's Next for Nanotechnology [Englisch] [Gebundene Ausgabe]

I can't give this book more than two stars, and that's being generous.

Mr. Hall does present some interesting ideas, but unfortunately, his editors have done him a huge disservice. Here are the first three sentences of Stage I, on page 23;

Essentially what we have now--nanoscale science and technology--including the ability to image at the atomic scale with scanning probe microscopes, and a very limited ability to manipulate, that is, by pushing things around with the same scanning probes. A scanning probe is essentially like feeling something with a stick. Because you have a computer behind it, you can touch it in a very close grid of points and produce a picture.

I made it through the first fifty pages, and it didn't get any better.

I don't know if Mr. Hall had a final read before publication, or not, but someone should have stopped this book from being published until it was properly edited.

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I had the feeling I've read this book before. And in a way I have, because it recycles much of Eric Drexler's book, "Engines of Creation," from nearly 20 years ago, even copying Drexler's condescending way of explaining basic scientific and technological concepts. It would have made more sense for Hall to publish an updated edition of "Engines" and list himself as a co-author, instead of writing a largely derivative book of his own. He could still have put in a chapter about his "invention" of Utility Fog, yet another example of nanotech vaporware that many of us long-time "Transhumanists" probably won't live long enough to see. I didn't feel I got my money's worth, so borrow it from the library before you decide whether to buy it.

First of all I must say this book is not for the faint of heart or faint of mind. I wouldn't reccomend someone who hadn't been educated at a university or at least had interest in nanotechnology. For those who don't know nanotechnology in the loose usage is just parts that range from 1 to 1000 nanometers in size-essentially many billions of times smaller than the width of a human hair. However, what people in the industry refer to as true nanotechnology is machinery that can operate at a molecular or atomic level. Some aspects of the book get fairly deep into biology, physics and chemistry. For the first half of the book there is a "nanofact" or possible amazing thing that can be done with this technology every other page. The second half gets into the logistics and actual possiblity of nanotechnology.

Not to be terribly critical but it is clear Hall's PhD is in science and not literature. I didn't go looking for errors but I did find a few. So if you are looking for a well edited book or mind some of the goofy onomotopia then you probably shouldn't read this book. Nanofuture is more like a science fiction novel written by an actual scientist than a reference. About halfway through the book I felt like could have really started to curtail. Instead Dr. Hall starts going into more opinated topics such as space living and transhumanism. I say opininated because they are his opinions. While some are warranted, others are just what he feels should happen. This is why scientists don't run countries.

Hall touts nanotechnology as the next technological revolution and he makes a very good argument for it. Some of the most interesting facts: it would be possible to make an electrostatic engine with billions of smaller nanoengines capable of making the equivalent of a 100,000 horsepower jet engine that could fit in the palm of your hand/an atomically precise building going up for tens of miles/all the information on the internet (approximately 4 billion webpages) could fit into a single grain of sand with nanotechnology.

Hall talks about five stages of nanotechnology which ranges from stage one which are just moving parts at the nanometer level to level five where whole nanofactories can replicate themselves and are completely autonomous. Having completed some college physics I know a few things about the possibility of these quite incredible machines. Everything at least is plausible because on the atomic level there is no waste and these machines will not ever wear, making so many things in transportation almost infinitely more efficient.

The latter part of the book gets into some considerably further off technology such as synthesizing machines and robots. Some of this seems to be almost pointless to put in the book because a large part of it is speculation--especially the robots. More importantly the greatest factor in deciding if and when nanotechnology will come to fruition is politics. Science and progress, for the past several centuries has depended on politics, whether in the church or in the government. According to Hall one billion dollars a year are being allocated to research across the United States. Unfortunately, much of this funding is going to research that is moving rather slow and/or being used for creating small parts for current technology in cpu's, cell phones, televisions and various other electronics. He intimates that nanotechnology is most likely going to be considerably advanced in the next decade, almost certainly in the next 25 years and definitely in the next century. I have to agree with him about this, but only in the sense that this technology will become more prevalent; quite possibly never ubiquitous as televisions or computers.